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Dixie Saints (mormon pioneers)
Early church branches Old Dixie ** Buttahatchie 1845 LDS Branch located in Noxubee County, Mississippi ** Moscow 1845 LDS Branch located in Pickens County, Alabama ** Itawamba 1845 LDS Branch located in Itawamba County, Mississippi ** Chickasaw 1845 LDS Branch located in Chickasaw County, Mississippi ** Tombigbee 1845 LDS Branch located in Monroe County, Mississippi - a very large church branch along the Tombigbee River. ** Tishomingo 1845 LDS Branch located in Tishomingo County, Mississippi - 1846 Pueblo Experience Fort Laramie In 1846, the Dixie Saints had traveled as far westward as Fort Laramie looking for the caravans of Nauvoo Saints. From the historic narrative, it sounds like they thought they were eventually headed all the way to California. Fort Laramie was one of the western American settlement in the original territory of the original Louisiana Purchase. From here the Oregon Trail continued west to connect with the Oregon Territory and the Pacific Ocean, land only recently acquired by the U.S. Government. In 1846, all of this land was wild territory with no organized government oversight. Just to the south was the northern limits of Mexican Territory (following the line of the current Idaho-Utah state borders.) Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and then known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th century trading post and diplomatic site located at the confluence of the Laramie River and the North Platte River in the upper Platte River Valley in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It was founded in the 1830s to service the overland fur trade during the middle 19th century. It sat at the bottom of the long climb leading to the best and lowest crossing point at South Pass into western descending valleys and so was a primary stopping point on the Oregon Trail. Along with Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, the trading post and its supporting industries and businesses were the most significant economic hub of commerce in the region. Eventually they learned that those Saints had stopped near Winters Quarters (over 500 miles to the east) so our group turned back to the Pueblo deciding that it would be the best place to spend their winter and raise crops. Early Sighting of Mormon Battalion In the summer of 1846, the legendary writer, Francis Parkman (1823-1893), made his historic trip up and down the Oregon Trail which would become the basis for his best-selling book of the same name, The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life. First he records an unusual Indian report on the early progress of the Mormon Battalion nearby (September 1846). Parkman, The Oregon Trail, pg 286-287 "On the next day, the camp (indian) was in commotion with a new arrival. A single Indian (named Stabber) had come with his family from the Arkansas (River)...he gave out that he brought great news to tell the whites...He had been on the Arkansas, and there he had seen six great war parties of whites. He had never believed before that the whole world contained half so many white men. They all had large horses, long knives, and short rifles, and some of them were dress alike in the most splendid war dresses he had ever seen. From this account it was clear that bodies of dragoons (Mormon Battalion five companies plus headquarters company?) and perhaps also of volunteer cavalry had passed up the Arkansas. The Stabber had also seen a great many of the white lodges (wagons) of the Meneaska, drawn by their long-horned buffalo. These could be nothing more than covered ox-wagons used no doubt in transporting stores for the troops. Soon after seeing this, our host met an Indian who had lately come from amoung the Camanches, who had told him that all the Mexicans had gone out to a great Buffalo hunt; that the Americans had hid themselves in a ravine; and that when the Mexicans had shot away all their arrows, the Americans had fired their guns, raised their warshoop, rushed out, and killed them all. We could only infer from this, that was had been declared with Mexico, and a battle fought in which the Americans were victorious. When some weeks after, we arrived at the Pueblo, we heard of General Kearney's march up the Arkansas and of General Taylor's victories at Matamoras. Narrative - Life at Pueblo Shortly thereafter, Parkman reaches "The Pueblo" (Pueblo Colorado), where he gives us great descriptive of the place at the time when the Dixie Saints were staying there. Parkman, The Oregon Trail, pg 300-302 After an hour's ride we reached the edge of a hill, from which a welcome sight greeted us. The Arkansas ran along the valley below, among woods and groves, and closely nestled in the midst ofwide corn-fields and green meadows, where cattle were grazing, rose the low mud walls of the Pueblo. We approached the gate of the Pueblo. It was a wretched species of fort, of most primitive construction, surrounded by a wall of mud, miserably cracked and dilapidated. The slender pickets that surmounted it were half broken down, and the gate dangled on its wooden hinges so loosely, that to open or shut it seemed likely to fling it down altogether. Two or three squalid Mexicans, with their broad hats, and their vile faces overgrown with hair, were lounging about the bank of the river in front of it...(Finding) Richard (who) conducted us to the state apartment of the Pueblo, a small mud room, very neatly finished, considering the material, and garnished with a crucifix, a looking-glass, a picture of the Virgin, and a rusty horse-pistol. There were no chairs, but instead of them a number of chests and boxes ranged about the room. There was another room beyond, less sumptuously decorated, and here three or four Spanish girls, one of them very pretty, were baking cakes as a mud fireplace in the corner. The brought out a poncho, which they spread upon the floor by way of table-cloth. 1st Encounter with Dixie Saints Historic Fort Pueblo, is located on the north side of the Arkansas River, which in early 1846 was then the border between Mexican and American territory. Fort Pueblo was an adobe settlement and trading post built in 1842 by a group of independent traders at the ford of the Arkansas about half a mile west of the Fountain River. The exact location of this site is somewhat uncertain but is near First Street and Santa Fe Avenue in Pueblo, Colorado. The course of the Arkansas has changed by floods and the ford is gone, as is all surface evidence of the buildings at the fort. These builders hoped to profit from outfitting wagon trains embarking westward on the newly created Oregon Trail. While at the Pueblo, our historian Parkman records a couple of brief yet colorful encounters with some Mormon emigrants there (The Dixie Saints). Parkman had been traveling up and down the Oregon Trail with some Missourian adventurers and thus his attitude towards the Mormons is not all that positive. I pick up his narrative shortly his arrival where he is getting caught up with the latest news on the War with Mexico. Parkman, The Oregon Trail, pg 302-305 While we were discussing these matters (the War with Mexico), the doorway was darkened by a tall shambling fellow, who stood with his hands in his pockets taking a leisurely survey of the premises before he entered. He wore brown homespun trousers, much too short for his legs, and a pistol and bowie-knife stuck in his belt. His head and one eye were enveloped in a huge bandage of linen. Having completed his observations, he came slouching in, and sat down on a chest. Eight or ten more of the same stamp followed, and very coolly arranging themselves about the room, began to stare at the company. We were forcibly reminded of the Oregon emigrants, though these unwelcome visitors had a certain glitter of the eye, and a compression of the lips, which distinguished them from our old acquaintances of the prairie. They began to catechise us at once, inquiring whence we had come, what we meant to do next, and what were our prospects in life. The man with the bandaged head had met with an untoward accident a few days before. He was going down to the river to bring water, and was pushing through the young willows which covered the low ground when he came unawares upon a grizzly bear, which, having just eaten a buffalo-bull, had lain down to sleep off the meal. The bear rose on his hind legs, and gave the intruder such a blow with his paw that he laid his forehead entirely bare, clawed off the front of his scalp, and narrowly missed one of his eyes. Fortunately he was not in a pugnacious mood, being surfeited with his late meal. the man's companions, who were close behind, raised a shout, and the bear walked away, crushing down the willows in his leisurely retreat. These men belonged to a party of Mormons, who, out of a well-grounded fear of the other emigrants, had postponed leaving the settlements until all the rest were gone. On account of this delay, they did not reach Fort Laramie until it was too late to continue their journey to California. Hearing that there was good land at the head of the Arkansas, they crossed over under the guidance of Richard, and were now preparing to spend the winter at a spot about half a mile from the Pueblo. 2nd Encounter The next day, Parkman goes out to visit the camp of the Dixie Saints outside Pueblo. We crossed the river to visit the Mormon settlement. As we passed through the water, several trappers on horseback entered i from the other side. Their buckskin frocks were soaked through by the rain...After half an hour's riding, we saw the white wagons of the Mormons drawn up amoung the trees. Axes were sounding, trees falling, and log-huts rising along the edge of the woods and upon the adjoining meadow. As we came up, the Mormons left their work, seated themselves on the timber around us, and began earnestly to discuss points of theology, complain of the ill-usage they had received from the "Gentiles," and sound a lamentation over the loss of their great temple of Nauvoo. After remaining with them an hour we rode back to our camp, happy that the settlements had been delivered from the presence of such blind and desperate fanatics. References Category:Mexican-American War